The Finance Professionals' Post educates readers in the finance and banking sectors on the forces that shape their business. The FPP is a publication of the New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA).

11 posts from June 2014

06/25/2014

It is instructive to observe the reaction to the Piketty phenomenon — a 700-page treatise on political economy that became an overnight Amazon bestseller deserving, according to Larry Summers, of a Nobel Prize. It is similarly instructive to note the spectacle of the viral Russell Brand interview with the BBC’s Jeremy Paxman in which Brand pretty much shreds Paxman and calls for revolution. I can’t claim to have actually read Piketty’s tome, but I’ve read a lot of the reviews, and I have watched the Russell Brand video. Regardless of where you come down on their arguments, the response to Piketty’s book and the wide appeal of Brand’s rant taken together tell us that trouble is brewing.

According to a CFA Institute survey, 37% of us took the CFA challenge for career development and advancement. Not surprising. But when deciding whether or not CFA is right for your career goals, a common question emerges: would CFA work for me?

A Quick Look into CFA Charterholders' Typical Roles and Employers

To answer this question, the first port of call is to have a quick look at what current charterholders are doing and their typical employers. Luckily CFAI has summarized these information in a 2011 survey.

06/23/2014

The author, an international finance expert, focuses on the complexities of the US dollar as the global reserve currency. Exploring current fundamental modeling and the politics of international financial coordination, he details why, in spite of news reports concerning its demise, the dollar will continue to be the dominant world currency.

International investments are ultimately driven by the value of the dollar, the core currency around the globe. Currency movements are a primary determinant of international fixed-income diversification and are important for any international equity decision. Nonetheless, hedging is the default approach among money managers because their ability to forecast currency movements is so limited. Given the difficulty of forecasting, relatively little time is spent analyzing the fundamental components of currency returns. Dollar dynamics are often relegated to being treated as a mystery.

Most financial firms in the present day would need an overhaul of their current collateral management practices. This comes in the midst of the burden being experienced by an already intensely regulated financial industry and the new measures of regulation on OTC derivatives in the post financial crisis world. The costs of regulation are near-crippling to some firms. Big dealers are planning to exit or divest certain lines of business that will face huge operational costs as a result of regulation, and are no longer deemed profitable.

06/18/2014

While most financial services professionals must now surely be savvy enough to avoid generic CV clichés like “entrepreneurial”, “innovative team-player,” or “dynamic problem-solver”, there’s a chance you could be inadvertently including hackneyed phrases when attempting to demonstrate your prowess for your particular business area.

The key, say exasperated recruiters, is to be as specific as possible. If it’s not tangible, or something that can demonstrate your real achievements, it’s probably bunkum.

06/16/2014

This article argues that alternative investments—private equity, real estate, and hedge funds—have natural advantages in risk and return over traditional stock and bond investments. A large allocation to alternatives relative to current institutional practice is needed for a material contribution to an institutional investor’s bottom line. Investors should consider whether moving toward an “efficiency” portfolio with an emphasis on low-cost passive management or an “opportunity” portfolio with heavy reliance on value added through active management—especially alternative investments—is most appropriate for them. Investors who can tolerate the cost, complexity, and illiquidity should consider opportunity-type allocations of 40% of their return-seeking assets to private equity, non-core real estate, and hedge funds. Over time, institutional investors will likely choose alternative investments and indexing as their primary investment options, and traditional active management will likely transform to take on qualities currently associated with alternative investments.

06/11/2014

I got lost. A poorly marked hiking trail sent my husband and me in one wrong direction and then another before we found our way. This reminded me of how writing that lacks trail markers sends readers astray.

The best trail markers for your writing are topic sentences. A strong topic sentence—the first sentence of any paragraph—summarizes the information covered by the rest of the paragraph.

06/10/2014

You’re applying for jobs in finance. You’re relying on recruiters to act as intermediaries and to represent you to potential employers. In most cases, recruiters are honest upstanding individuals. But even honest, upstanding individuals can be a little economical with the truth sometimes.

Want to know whether a hiring agent is being duplicitous? According to recruiters, speaking candidly and anonymously, these are the signs.

06/09/2014

Young Money: Inside the Hidden World of Wall Street's Post-Crash Recruits tells the stories of eight young Wall Streeters who were hired after the Crash. Author Kevin Roose, New York magazine business writer, shadowed each subject for more than three years. They started their jobs in 2009- 2010, and most, but not all, are from elite ivy universities. Their identities are not revealed, and understandably so, since they could be fired for unauthorized media contacts. While Roose says some of the personal details and events have been changed; the stories are true, and read as candid and revealing.

06/02/2014

In career transition? Trying to keep your capreer options open? Unemployed? Now that the average job search can take up to 35 weeks, it's important to know how others see you - also known as your Executive Presence. In this short clip from a NYSSA Career Coffee™, InsideOut Executive Coaching's Nina Fiddian-Green shares key tips on setting your executive presence.